813. When the Good Times Prompt Fear: Navigating Life's Uncertain Currents

All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. When things are going good for you. Do you ever have that? That's sickening feeling. Of when it's all going to come crashing down. It's the old idiom man, like old people say when's the shoe gonna drop? Meaning that everything. Just comes falling apart for you. And I laugh saying that, man, because. I've had these situations so many times, like I'm just rolling in life. Things are growing good. And then you get that. I don't know, dude, you get this. Dark creepy feeling. You're like, Oh shit. I'm probably about to smack the wall. Do you ever have that feeling? I think we all have. And while you can't control those feelings. You can steer them. And use them. As a trigger. To. Work through a quick little checklist that I'm gonna talk about today. Because we all know that nothing stays the same. It doesn't we know that. But just because things change. From north. To a little bit south doesn't mean that. Everything has to come crashing down. It doesn't mean. That it all has to be cataclysmic. It doesn't. Because things rarely go bad. In an instant. It's the fact that you lost your awareness. And things eventually remember that's the game we always play eventually. And ultimately things eventually started eroding. And ultimately it hit this tipping point. And it just all came, crashing down. But really, if you take stock and you look back at. Tough situations in your life. It wasn't that one instant. That one thing that 500 blow may have been the thing that took it over the edge, but then when you replay it, and you're honest with yourself, And you're like, yeah, there was a lot of things that kind of went into play with that. And that's what happens when things are going good for us, we tend to lose our awareness. Your edge. You're not as hungry. And you began to. Just. Accept things. You just let some things slide. And in the moment, it doesn't seem like it matters. But see everything matters, maybe not right then and there, but everything the matter builds up and gets to this point. We're just becomes soul crushing. So the next time that you're rolling along in life. And you get that. Sickening feeling. Of when when's it all going to end for me? When's it all going to come crashing down. Don't look at it as bad man. It let it sit in. Don't let it set in, but let it sit in. Sit means just for a moment. Sat and means it just weighs on you. And then pushes you to the bottom of the ocean. No, let it sit in. This is a good thing. Life is sitting in. Given you a little punch there. And making you aware of it. And that's what I want you to realize, man, you have to acknowledge that when you, when you get these feelings, acknowledge it. But don't. Go with the feeling. Just acknowledge the feeling. Because if you go with the feeling. That's where, where self-sabotage sets in. This is where I've worked with many people. Who. They self-sabotage themselves. They'll change their lives. They'll get things rolling again. And then it's just like out of the blue, they just torch everything you like. Bro. What the hell was that about, man? You were just getting your life together. But see a lot of times, Because we, we haven't built up the infrastructure inside. We don't really feel like we're deserving of it. So we're rolling along and we're like, okay, this is. Okay. And in the back of our minds, we're like, I I've done so wrong. I don't really deserve this. And then that really sick feeling comes in is like, They're going to find out about you. You're not qualified. You shouldn't be here. You should be back there in your past. And then what they do is they self-sabotage, you just torched the whole thing. So when that sickening feeling. Sits in. I want you to treat it like a. Like life tapping you on the shoulder. You know, when somebody taps you on your shoulder. Instantly gets your attention. Right. And so when you have these I'm rolling. Sick feeling comes in. Treat it like a tap from life. You have to almost treat it like. Uh, check engine light on your car. A warning light on your dashboard. And some of you have been rolling with a check engine light for years. As long as it's not flashing. I'm good. And you just keep rolling. It's just a sensor. So in the same spirit when things are rolling, going good for you. Laissez Le Balto relay we're in the Mardi Gras season. So everything's rolling for you. And that sick feeling comes in. That's a tap on the shoulder from life. Treat it like a check engine light where you say, what do I need to be aware of right now? That check engine light is a sensor. And when its own like most vehicles when its own, it's just making you aware of something. Sometimes it's just a slight adjustment that needs to be made. Sometimes it just needs a reset. And if it's not flashing, then it's not, it's not a terrible thing. You're not needing to call the tow truck. First name when customers call me and say, Hey man, my check engine light is on. I always ask them. I say, Hey, is it flashing? Or is it all? And they're saying it's on. I say, okay, you got time. Let's schedule you something. If it's flash and pull over call a tow truck. Luckily with the check engine light in your life. It's not flashing. That sickening feeling is that check engine light is just on. This is where you need to start asking some questions. This is where you need to start. Run it through a little quick checklist, just something quick, man. Then. They'd have to be long and drawn out. But it is life saying, are you aware? So let's play this out a little bit sick feeling. Sits in. If this scenario were to play out, what kind of position? When I find myself in. Am I in a position of strength. R with this situation, be vulnerable. Don't ignore this. This is where people ignore their like, ah, What you need to say. If this were to play out. Am I good. Am I in position? or am I out of position and I better start checking it. So you may not be able to fix it all at once. But you can adjust the trajectory. And make a slight pivot. And then adjust that to start heading in the right direction. And when you realign, that then. Every day, man, you're just. Working. Small process. That keeps you positively. Aligned in life. another question that you should ask yourself is. If this negative scenario were to play out, how long kind of weather the situation. How long could I weather the storm? What sort of resources. Could I use. Almost treat it like a, like a fireman responded to a call. Firefighters. Don't go to the call. Would just enough equipment. They don't say, oh, I heard it's a small stove fire. So I'm just going to bring a little small fire extinguisher. No. They have a lot of shit on that truck. Because fires are unpredictable. Sometimes things in your life or unpredictable, what looks like a small fire. Kids out of hand real quick. So in the same spirit, just like things get out of hand on a call from a firefighter, they go to that truck, they get extra resources. That's the kind of thing you need to be looking at when you get that sickening feeling is what's on my fire truck. What additional resources do I have if need be. What am I credit card balances in a bad scenario. are my credit card balance is out of whack. Could I live on my credit cards? Don't advise that, but in a bad situation, What can I pay on a credit card? Could I cash out my investments. My 401k. Can I do a home equity loan. And cash out some of the equity. instead just cashing it out just to have a role in Disney summer. I don't do that. See, this is where you, you check this, you like, look, I got some really good equity in this home. I'm not going to do anything just in case because I really don't need it for a vacation. But keep that where it's at, because. If that check engine light in my life. Goes from own to flashing. I got some things I need to tend to real quick. I can cash that out. Pull out a hundred thousand out of my house. Good. So this is the kind of bullet points, man. You need to be working out of. This is where you just basically asked yourself. What do I lack? And what areas do I need to gain strength on? And sometimes the strength is just staying consistently on this path. Sometimes it's getting some knowledge you could be financially illiterate. You could be self-improvement illiterate. You could be healthy, illiterate. So what resources. Can you reposition yourself on. And again, it's not going to happen overnight. Nothing happens overnight. Good or bad. It happens over time. So now. This is just life tapping. You. Make those adjustments. And stay to it. And just stay in that right direction from there. This is where you got to get dyslexic in your mind. When things are going good. Work as if it's bad. This is where you keep your hunger. Keep your awareness, stay in position. Reposition your alignment. And then when things are going bad. work as if it's good. Because things never stay bad forever. So. The self-improvement. The positivity. That not turning to vices or hanging out with toxic people are doing toxic things. Go bust a sweat set of go to the bar. See, these are things when it's bad work as if it's good. And so you keep yourself, even though the current situation is not so favorable. Everything that surrounds that current situation that you can control. will put you in position. So when things turn back around, You're right back in the lane. Let's go. In the book, effortless, Greg McKeown writes just as you can find small actions to make life easier in the future. You can look for small actions that will prevent your life. From becoming harder. More complicated. So these small things is why bang the drum. On a process three to five things that you do every single day. And a lot of what I bang the drum on is just your self-improvement your health, these things, but you can also work a process in your finances, just. Three to four things, you could do it in your relationship, you could do it in your career. Just three to five things, man, just the simple process. And you work that every single day. I'm not interested in the results. I'm interested more so in the direction. That puts me on the trajectory. Toward favorable results. And I don't get bogged down because I don't get enough results right then and there I realize and believe in the power of compounding. So even though it's not happening in six months, six years from now, I gained 20 years of results because I stayed to it because I just laid the brick because I didn't put a negative narrative to it. I just worked a three to five step process. In essence, man, you just don't let things slide. Confront confront, confront, confront. And it took me bottoming out in life. To begin to confront some things, to not let things slide to not say I'll deal with it on Monday. Our today's an off day. I don't want a full week now. Just confront it. If you keep the minors minor, the never become major. So you keep things minor. See something that's a little bit out of alignment for your life check engine light, check it. What kind of position am I in? Where's this heading. Am I going to be vulnerable? And am I in a position of strength? If you're in a position of strength, Bravo, keep doing what you're doing. If you're not. Okay. What's the slight adjustment, just slight adjustment. This is what's beautiful about it because. Rarely. I am I emphasized this rarely. Does everything happen all at once? It didn't happen overnight. It happened over time. And this is the beautiful thing about life. when things are rolling. Life gives us these fearful thoughts of, oh my God. All this could end. That's the grace of life. Grace is just tapping you. Not that she's going to make that come true for you. But she's just saying, Hey, are you aware this could happen? Are you aware that you're out of alignment? And your direction is not heading the right way. It's that one 60 rule that pilots use for every 60 nautical miles that they travel. Just one degree off. After 60 nautical miles or a mile off course. And if you're flying from California to New York, And you're one degree off. Over time. By the time he gets to New York. You ain't getting in New York, you're going to be way. Out there somewhere else. I don't know where that ends up. But that's what happens. So these are these one degree situations. And that's, what's great about life and the grace and the mercy that life gives us check engine light. Dashboard light warning, light one degree. We could change one degree, right. Let's don't get to a point where we got to change 30 degrees. I've been there. That's a hard one, one degree. Nothing to it. But the only way that you're gonna be able to catch that one degree and make the adjustment. Is you got to stay aware. You got to confront. And when you get these sickening feelings that is life telling you. But do a brake check. All right. Let's get out of here. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Let's get it.